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Sense of Peer Belonging and Institutional Acceptance in the

First Year: The Role of High-Impact Practices

Amy Ribera, Ph.D.

Angie Miller, Ph.D.

Amber D. Dumford, Ph.D. Indiana University, Bloomington

Center for Postsecondary Research

National Survey of Student Engagement

SENSE OF BELONGING

“In terms of college, sense of belonging refers to students’ perceived social support on campus, a feeling or

sensation of connectedness, the experience of mattering or feeling cared about, accepted, respected,

valued, and important to a group (e.g., campus community) or others on campus (e.g., faculty, peers). It’s a cognitive evaluation that typically leads to an affective response or

behavior (p. 3).”

• Precursor to student departure (and engagement) (Hurtado & Carter, 1997)

• Historically underrepresented students (e.g.,Hausmann et al, 2007; Ostrove & Long, 2007)

• Effective educational practices (e.g., Hoffman et al. 2002; Maestas et al. 2007)

• Institutional types (e.g., Maestas et al., 2007)

• Interactions with diverse others (Strayhorn, 2008)

SENSE OF BELONGING

• Supportive campus environment

(e.g., Flowers & Pascarella, 2003)

• Student perceptions and satisfaction (Kuh, 1993)

• Domino effect (Berger & Milem, 1999)

FIRST-YEAR EXPERIENCE

HIGH-IMPACT PRACTICES

National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE)

• Service-learning

• Learning communities

• Research with faculty

• Senior culminating experience

• Study abroad

• Internship

Kuh (2008) recommends every student should participate in at least two high-impact activities--one in the first year and one later, in the major.

HIGH-IMPACT PRACTICES

Several Common Traits

Demand considerable amount of time and effort

Provide learning opportunities outside of the classroom

Require meaningful interactions with faculty members and students

Provide frequent meaningful feedback

Encourage interactions with diverse others

PURPOSE

First-year participation in HIPs influences students' sense of belonging as it relates to: • Feelings of connection with peers (peer

belonging)

• Feelings of acceptance by members of the institution such as faculty, staff, and student affairs professionals (institutional acceptance)

1. What are the overall participation rates of HIPs among FY students?

2. Do FY students experience peer belonging and institutional acceptance differently by race or ethnicity, parental education, and gender?

3. Are FY students’ sense of peer belonging and institutional acceptance positively affected by participation in HIPs?

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE)

In 2014, more than 473,000 first-year and senior respondents from 713 four-year colleges and universities

Reasons for participation vary:

–National and regional accreditation

–Departmental/program reviews

–Curricular reform (general education)

– Institutional improvement efforts (e.g., retention rates, high-impact practices, FYE programming)

DATA SOURCE

SAMPLE

Limited to:

• 44 four-year institutions

• First-year students (n=9,371)

• Experimental item set on topic of campus environment appended to core survey

Valid % Valid n

First-generation 40% 7,305

Traditionally-aged

(23 or younger) 94% 7,282

Female 63% 5,866

Race/ethnicity

Asian, Asian

American 2% 150

Black, African

American 15% 1,246

Latino, Hispanic 8% 640

White 61 5,090

Valid % Valid n

Private 45% 4,241

Minority-serving 9% 804

Selectivity

Highly 13% 1,180

Moderately 56% 5,224

Liberally 32% 2,967

Carnegie type

Research/Doc 38% 3,591

Master’s 17% 1,576

Bac. colleges 41% 3,812

Other 4% 392

How much do you agree or disagree with the following statements?

EXPERIMENTAL ITEMS

You fit in with the other students at your institution Strongly Agree Somewhat Agree Somewhat disagree Strongly disagree

Not applicable

It is difficult to make friends at this institution

No one would notice if you missed class

It is easy to get involved with student clubs and organizations at this institution

Your faculty got to know you and your background

This institution treats students like individual people instead of just numbers

You have very few friends or acquaintances at this institution

There are other students at this institution who share your views and beliefs

EXPERIMENTAL ITEMS

PEER BELONGING Factor

loadings

You fit in with the other students at your institution .76

It is difficult to make friends at this institution (reverse coded) .80

You have very few friends or acquaintances at this institution (reverse coded) .80

There are other students at this institution who share your views and beliefs .58

INSTITUTIONAL ACCEPTANCE

No one would noticed if you missed class (reverse coded) .72

It is easy to get involved with student clubs and organizations at this institution .51

Your faculty got to know you and your background .58

This institution treats students like individual people instead of just numbers .83

METHODS

• Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor Analysis

– Peer Belonging (α=.722)

– Institutional Acceptance (α=.667)

• Frequencies

– High-impact practice items, by sub-groups

• Two OLS regression models

OLS Dependent Variables

• Dependent variables – Peer Belonging

– Institutional Acceptance

• Standardized prior to entering the model

• Coefficients interpreted as effect sizes

OLS Independent Variables

S1. Student demographics

First-generation

Age

Gender

Race/Ethnicity

S1. College experiences

Enrollment status

Took all courses online

Majored in STEM

College grades

Living situation

Greek Life

S1. Institutional context

Control

Minority-serving institution

Selectivity

Carnegie type

S2. High-impact practices* Service-learning

Learning communities

Research with faculty

Student leadership

*Entered individually

OLS Independent Variables

High-impact practices

• Service-learning

• Learning communities

• Research with faculty

• Senior culminating experience

• Study abroad

• Internship

• AND Student leadership

Response Categories: o Have not decided o Do not plan to do o Plan to do Done or in progress

# of courses included community-based project (service learning): o None Some Most All

Valid N Valid %

Service learning (HIP) 3,779 48.8

Learning community (HIP) 1,259 16.2

Campus leadership role 1,042 13.3

Research with faculty (HIP) 511 6.6

Q1 RESULTS: Participation

Level of Participation by First-Year Students

Q2 Results: Peer Belonging


First-generation

Traditionally-aged

Women

Asian, Asian American

Black, African American

Latino or Hispanic

Other race/ethnicity

White (ref group)

S1. College experiences Full-time


Majored in STEM

Mostly As (ref group)

Mostly Bs

Mostly Cs

Living situation

Greek member

S1. Institutional context Private

Minority-serving institution

Selectivity

Carn-Research/DRU

Carn-Masters

Carn-Other

Carn-Bac (ref group)



First-generation (-)

Traditionally-aged

Women

White (ref group)

Asian, Asian American (-)

Black, African American (-)

Latino or Hispanic (-)

Other race/ethnicity (-)



Majored in STEM


Mostly Bs (-)

Mostly Cs (--)

Living situation

Greek member


Minority-serving institution Selectivity

Carn-Research/DRU

Carn-Masters

Carn-Other





Traditionally-aged

Women

White (ref group)







Majored in STEM


Mostly Bs (-)

Mostly Cs (--)

Living situation

Greek member


Minority-serving institution (-)

Selectivity (-)

Carn-Research/DRU

Carn-Masters (-)

Carn-Other





Traditionally-aged

Women

White (ref group)







Majored in STEM


Mostly Bs (-)

Mostly Cs (--)

Living situation (+)

Greek member (+)

S1. Institutional context Private (+)

Minority-serving institution (-)

Selectivity (-)

Carn-Research/DRU

Carn-Masters (-)

Carn-Other


Q2 Results: Inst. Acceptance



Traditionally-aged

Women

White (ref group)



Latino or Hispanic




Majored in STEM


Mostly Bs (-)

Mostly Cs (--)

Living situation

Greek member (+)


Minority-serving institution Selectivity

Carn-Research/DRU

Carn-Masters

Carn-Other


Q2 Results: Inst. Acceptance



Traditionally-aged

Women

White (ref group)



Latino or Hispanic




Majored in STEM


Mostly Bs (-)

Mostly Cs (--)

Living situation

Greek member (+)

S1. Institutional context Private (++)

Minority-serving institution Selectivity (+)

Carn-Research/DRU (---)

Carn-Masters (-)

Carn-Other (-)


Q3 RESULTS: HIPs

• All HIPs were positively related to both sense of belonging measures, with the exception of research with faculty

• However, research with faculty had a strong positive relationship with students’ sense of institutional acceptance

• HIPs had a positive but weaker relationship with students’ sense of peer belonging

DISCUSSION

• Corroborates previous research in several ways

• Adds nuance to sense of belonging literature

• Expands generalizability of findings

• Sense of belonging and student engagement go hand-in-hand

• Limitations

• Direction for future research

Amy Ribera

[email protected]

Angie Miller [email protected]

Amber D. Dumford

[email protected]

Copy of the conference paper: http://nsse.iub.edu/html/pubs.cfm

mailto:[email protected]



http://nsse.iub.edu/html/pubs.cfm

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